Brotherhood of the Screaming Abyss: My Life with Terence McKenna

721 Pages·2012·4.04 MB·English

by  Dennis McKenna

The Brotherhood of the Screaming Abyss

My Life with Terence McKenna

Dennis McKenna

Polaris Publications
An imprint of North Star Press of St. Cloud, Inc.
Copyright 2012 © by Dennis McKenna
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without
written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in articles and reviews. For information
and permission, please contact the publisher.

Design and layout: Mark Odegard
Editing: Jeremiah Creedon
Credits
The following works are used by permission: Photographs by Sara Hartley.
Photograph by Jeremy Bigwood.
Photograph by Jill Wagner
Maps by Mark Odegard.
Drawing on title page by Janet Gordon.

Excerpts from TRUE HALLUCINATIONS by TERENCE MCKENNA.
Copyright © 1993 by Terence McKenna. Reprinted courtesy of HarperCollins Publishers.

Poem by William P. Watson, “Pursuing To Peru The G’nostic Guru,”
printed by permission of the author.

Portions of Chapter 46 are adapted from an essay by the author that appeared in Ayahuasca Reader:
Encounters with the Amazon’s Sacred Vine, edited by Luis Eduardo Luna and Steven F. White (2000).
Published by
Polaris Publications
An imprint of North Star Press of St. Cloud, Inc.
P.O. Box 451
St. Cloud, Minnesota 56302
www.northstarpress.com

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

ISBN 978-0-87839-637-5

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2012951930

For more information visit the book’s website: www.brotherhoodofthescreamingabyss.com

McKenna, Dennis

The Brotherhood of the screaming abyss: my life with Terence McKenna / by Dennis McKenna
Dedication

To our Mother and Father, Hazelle and Joe McKenna, who loved us through it
all.
Table of Contents

Foreword
Preface

Part One - Beginnings

Chapter 1 - Beginnings
Chapter 2 - Three Sisters
Chapter 3 - Roots and Wars
Chapter 4 -Terry and Denny
Chapter 5 - Happy Day Rides
Chapter 6 - The Nobody People
Chapter 7 - The Collector
Chapter 8 - Flying, Fishing, and Hunting
Chapter 9 - Goodbye to All That
Chapter 10 - The Big Picture
Chapter 11 - First Loves: 1962
Chapter 12 - The California Crusade
Chapter 13 - The Experimental College: 1965
Chapter 14 - Cannabis: 1966
Chapter 15 - The Tutor
Chapter 16 - A Psychedelic Education
Chapter 17 - Mapping Inner Space: Carl Jung
Chapter 18 - The Ladders of Ecstasy: Mircea Eliade
Chapter 19 - Summer of Love: 1967
Chapter 20 - The Secret Encountered
Chapter 21 - The Stoners’ Revenge
Chapter 22 - My Datura Misadventure
Chapter 23 - Escape from Mordor: 1968
Chapter 24 - The Church Lawn Bunch
Chapter 25 - Busted Again: 1969
Chapter 26 - Girl with a Gun: 1970

Part Two - Into the Abyss

Chapter 27 - The Brotherhood Forms
Chapter 28 - Our Mother’s Death
Chapter 29 - A Narrow Passage: 1971
Chapter 30 - On the Edge of the Abyss
Chapter 31 - The Experiment at La Chorrera
Chapter 32 - Waiting for the Stone
Chapter 33 - The Bell Tower and a UFO
Chapter 34 - Reflections on La Chorrera

Part Three -Invisible Landscapes

Chapter 35 - Invisible Landscapes
Chapter 36 - The Timewave
Chapter 37 - To See the Great Man
Chapter 38 - Fun with Fungi: 1975
Chapter 39 - A Lab in Paradise
Chapter 40 - In the Trenches
Chapter 41 - An Encounter with Ayahuasca
Chapter 42 - The River of Poisons
Chapter 43 - Adulthood and its Victims
Chapter 44 - The Plant Teachers: 1985
Chapter 45 - The Perpetual Postdoc
Chapter 46 - Climbing the Vine: 1991
Chapter 47 - New in Town
Chapter 48 - The Bard in Light and Shadow
Chapter 49 - A Desperate Situation
Chapter 50 - Into the Fire

Epilogue
Acknowledgments
Patrons
Bibliography
About the Author